Category Archives: Valuations

Court Finds Plaintiff Fails to Show ESOP Transaction Caused Injury

January 27, 2020 | Court Rulings, Valuations

Lee v. Argent Trust Co. The private plaintiff alleged a number of violations by the ESOP trustee and other defendants. The plaintiff maintained the trustee participated in a prohibited transaction and breached its fiduciary duties. By the plaintiff’s calculation, the ESOP overpaid for company stock. The district court dismissed the suit and, in so doing,  Continue Reading »

Novel Issue of Law Raised in ESOP Case That Pits Trustee Against Appraiser

January 13, 2020 | Court Rulings, Valuations

Remy v. Lubbock Nat’l Bank A fairly routine ESOP case that is being litigated in the 4th Circuit has raised a novel legal issue in this jurisdiction as to the financial liability of co-fiduciaries and nonfiduciaries, including the ESOP appraiser. The plaintiffs in the main case sued the defendant, Lubbock National Bank (Lubbock), over its  Continue Reading »

Tax Court’s Amazon Valuation Ruling Stands Up to 9th Circuit Scrutiny

December 16, 2019 | Court Rulings, Tax Planning, Valuations

Amazon.com, Inc. v. Commissioner The 9th Circuit recently affirmed the U.S. Tax Court’s 2017 decision in favor of Amazon in this key transfer pricing case, finding the governing regulations limited the definition of “intangible” to independently transferable assets. This interpretation supported the Tax Court’s favoring the comparable uncontrolled transaction (CUT) method over the discounted cash  Continue Reading »

In Gatekeeper Role, Court Trains Attention on Expert Methodology, Not Conclusions

December 2, 2019 | Court Rulings, Valuations

Acosta v. Wilmington Trust In this ESOP litigation, both parties tried to exclude the opposing side’s valuation expert testimony under Rule 702 and Daubert. The court noted that, at this stage in the proceedings, its focus was on whether the experts applied reliable principles and methods, not on the experts’ conclusions. This case serves as  Continue Reading »

Court Explains Treatment of Undistributed Earnings in Valuing Law Firm Partnership Interest

November 18, 2019 | Court Rulings, Divorce Litigation, Valuations

Burchfield v. Burchfield Among a host of issues, this Virginia divorce case, which included a prominent Washington, D.C., lawyer and his estranged wife, raised an important valuation question related to the husband’s partnership interest in the firm: Whether undistributed earnings were includible in the marital property, as the wife’s expert claimed, or whether they were  Continue Reading »

NAV Alone Fails to Capture Distributional Interest’s Fair Value

November 4, 2019 | Court Rulings, Valuations

Schewe v. Schewe Farms In a family dispute featuring a farm business that owned real estate, the parties’ experts disagreed on an issue that was pivotal to how they would value the sellers’ distributional interest. The trial court resolved the valuation dispute by adopting one expert’s proposed methodology while making significant adjustments to that expert’s  Continue Reading »

ESOP Court Denies Discovery of DOL Expert’s Prior Work for Government

September 23, 2019 | Valuations

Acosta v. Wilmington Trust In an ongoing ESOP litigation, the defendant trustee’s effort to obtain information on the DOL expert’s prior valuation work for the government was thwarted. In denying the trustee’s motion to compel, the court found the information was protected under Rule 26 of the federal rules of civil procedure. The U.S. Department  Continue Reading »

Unequivocal ‘No’ to Unaffected Market Price—Delaware Supreme Court Strikes Down Aruba Networks

September 9, 2019 | Court Rulings, Valuations

Verition Partners Master Fund Ltd. v. Aruba Networks, Inc. In a sharp rebuke, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned the Court of Chancery’s controversial decision in the Aruba Networks statutory appraisal case to use the unaffected market price as the sole indicator of fair value. The Court of Chancery obtained the market price by averaging the  Continue Reading »

4th Circuit Upholds Brundle ESOP Valuation and Damages Findings

August 26, 2019 | Court Rulings, Valuations

Brundle v. Wilmington Trust N.A. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals just affirmed the district court’s ruling against the trustee in the intensely contested Brundle v. Wilmington Trust ESOP case, including the district court’s valuation and damages findings. The district court concluded that the ESOP trustee had violated its fiduciary duty by causing the plan  Continue Reading »

Appeals Court Upholds Grocery Store Buyout Ruling and Fair Value Determination

July 29, 2019 | Court Rulings, Valuations

Lund v. Lund A protracted Minnesota buyout dispute involving the heirs to a local grocery store empire may have reached the end. The state appeals court affirmed most of the district court’s rulings, including the buyout order and fair value determination. The valuation trial featured two veteran appraisers and a judge well versed in appraisal  Continue Reading »